Poll: Support for Same-Sex Marriage Hits New High in Wake of Judicial Rulings

 

Yet another poll shows that the Christofascists are losing the so-called culture wars and that with each judicial ruling striking down marriage bans, the public support for marriage equality is increasing.  Stated another way, the Christofascists and their GOP political prostitutes are increasingly living in a bubble if they think that a majority of Americans support their anti-gay agenda.  Here in Virginia even recalcitrant Democrats such as Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones are coming to learn that instead of garnering support, anti-equality positions are turning into liabilities.  And in the context of the GOP backed "religious liberty" laws, a significant majority of Americans oppose anti-gay discrimination.  The Washington Post looks at the latest poll findings. Here are some of the findings:

Half of all Americans believe that gay men and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll in which a large majority also said businesses should not be able to deny serving gays for religious reasons.

Fifty percent say the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection gives gays the right to marry, while 41 percent say it does not.

Beyond the constitutional questions, a record-high 59 percent say they support same-sex marriage, while 34 percent are opposed, the widest margin tracked in Post-ABC polling.

The poll was conducted in the wake of a series of rulings by federal judges that state bans on same-sex marriage and prohibitions on recognizing marriages performed elsewhere are unconstitutional.

In the 33 states that prohibit same-sex marriage, 53 percent of those polled support allowing it, while 40 percent oppose doing so.

According to the poll, public opinion is more unified on recent proposals that would allow businesses to refuse serving gays and others based on the religious convictions of the business owner. Nearly seven in 10 respondents say businesses should not be allowed to refuse service to gays. On this question, majorities across partisan lines said businesses should not be allowed to deny service.  Last week, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) vetoed a measure that would have allowed businesses to refuse service to customers based on religious grounds.

The shifting attitudes extend beyond issues of marital rights to more basic beliefs about the nature of homosexuality and its implications for child rearing. Nearly eight in 10 say that gays can parent as well as straight people, up from just below six in 10 in a 1996 Newsweek survey.

Sixty-one percent support allowing gays to adopt a child, up from 49 percent in 2006 and 29 percent in a 1992 poll by Time magazine and CNN. More than twice as many people consider being gay as “just the way they are,” rather than something they chose.

Despite the changing views, deep chasms remain along religious, generational and political lines. Six in 10 evangelical Protestants oppose same-sex marriage, while about six in 10 Catholics, non-evangelical Protestants and eight in 10 with no religious affiliation support it. Three-quarters of Americans younger than 30 support same-sex marriage, while less than half of seniors say the same.

Among Republicans who say people are born gay (half say this), 64 percent support same-sex marriage, 61 percent say the Constitution provides the right to such unions and 70 percent favor allowing gays to adopt.

Given all of these findings, one has to wonder when the GOP is going to wake up to the reality that its institutionalized homophobia is a sure path to slow political suicide.